Sparks flew at a usually staid Congressional hearing on the Freedom of Information Act Tuesday, as the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee accused the Office of Management and Budget of bottling up legally-required recommendations to improve federal agencies' compliance with the law guaranteeing public access to government records.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont and ranking Republican Chuck Grassley of Iowa went on the warpath after the head of a federal office involved with FOIA said her proposals for legislative changes went to OMB more than a year ago, but have yet to be formally adopted or submitted to Congress by the administration.

"The first set of recommendations were given just over a year ago," said Miriam Nisbet, director of the Office of Government Information Services. "Those did get held up. I’m not sure that I can explain why, but I can tell you that we are working with OMB now to get that process going."

The explanation did not satisfy either Leahy or Grassley.

"We haven’t received them yet. The law requires us to receive them. When will we receive them?" Leahy asked insistently.

"I hope you will receive something very shortly. However, I will tell you that we are working with OMB actively to see whether some of those suggestions that we had might be able to be addressed administratively without asking Congress to make any legislative change," Nisbet replied.

"The law’s pretty clear about us getting the reports. We haven’t gotten the report. Who’s at fault?....My question is: who's not following the law?" Leahy said angrily. "I think if recommendations are made a year ago, even if the mail is being kind of slow, I’m happy to drive down there and pick it up. I’d be happy to, if they’d let me into the building."

"Would it help you if we would write a letter to OMB and tell them to get off the pot?" Grassley chimed in.

Nisbet noted that the 2007 law that created her office doesn't say how often such recommendations should be delivered. Pressed by the senators, she eventually agreed to work with OMB to get "something" to Congress within a month.

Not content to let it go, Leahy dropped a subpoena threat. "I’d like to have people be happy to respond to us without us having to subpoena things, but we do have that alternative," he said. "My concern and Sen. Grassley’s is directed at OMB, not at you. We’re trying to give you a little [cluck]," Leahy said, making a gesture as if he was whacking someone.

An OMB official indicated Tuesday that the recommendations are now back with OGIS, being further refined. "OGIS worked with OMB to get agency feedback on their initial proposals. OGIS is taking that feedback and agency insights to review the proposals and explore next steps to continue enhancing government transparency," said the official, who asked not to be named.

OMB had no immediate response to a query about when the recommendations were returned for additional work by OGIS, which is part of the National Archives.

"OGIS worked through OMB to get agency feedback on our initial proposals," National Archives spokeswoman Susan Cooper said in an e-mail Tuesday. "Based on this feedback and discussion with OMB, OGIS is exploring ways to accomplish its objectives expeditiously through administrative actions, and without the need for legislation."

The precise nature of OGIS's FOIA recommendations has not been reported. However, sources close to the process told POLITICO earlier that part of the proposal was to standardize FOIA processing systems across the government. This caused some concern on the part of agencies which made investments recently in FOIA-processing technology or let contracts with outside vendors, said the sources, who also reported that issues were raised about whether OGIS or the Justice Department's Office of Information Policy would oversee such an effort.

Indeed, at Tuesday's hearing OGIS chief Nisbet and OIP chief Melanie Pustay seemed to be trying to outdo each other by dazzling the senators with descriptions of the functionality of new multi-agency portals the two offices are separately building.

Tuesday's hearing was part of Sunshine Week, an annual series of events stressing the importance of government transparency.